“Where are we going?” Tina asked, considering the apparent foreign nature of the business as it was. Thoughts of Scandinavia flickered through her mind. Then Greece and Turkey as that was where the Byzantine Empire had once ruled. Tina wasn’t even thinking about the fact that she’d only been working at the job for just four days. And that Turkey wasn’t exactly the safest of places at the moment as far as she had heard.

“Oh, not far,” Devon told her, “Just about an hour west of the city. Hamilton.”

Tina was disappointed. And she tried not to let it show. Not so exotic then. Kind of the opposite to exotic, really.

“Hamilton?” she asked.

“Near there,” Devon told her. He smiled and added, “Not disappointed are you? You look a little disappointed, I mean, from a couple minutes ago.”

“No,” she replied, “I thought my first business trip I’d be going somewhere more… interesting.”

“Like the Byzantine Empire?” he offered with a smirk.

Tina laughed.

“Well, maybe Istanbul,” she agreed. “It still sounds a pretty cool place to visit.”

“You know what they say,” he told her. “Be careful what you wish for.”

There seemed a bit of a conspiratorial tone to his voice, but Tina wasn’t exactly paying attention to that. Hamilton, was, after all, a more realistic destination.

“How long are we going to be there,” she asked.

“Just for the afternoon,” he told her. “At most.”

There was that look again. She wanted to bring it up with Claire, but when the topic of Hamilton came up her roommate laughed.

“You trust this guy to take you to Hamilton?” she joked. “Does your boss have a mullet?

“He is my boss,” she told her roommate. “And yeah, he does have a bit of a mullet. But I don’t think he’s taking me there to meet his family.”

“Just make sure you keep your GPS on and don’t let him take you to the secondary crime scene,” Claire joked.

“Is that really funny anymore?” Tina asked.

“Oh come on, how tall is he?” Claire joked again. “Four feet? I think you can take him. Have another hard lemonade.”

“Four foot three,” Tina corrected. That was what Devon claimed. It was about right. She herself was five foot four, only eleven inches taller than he was. She did grab that hard lemonade.

“I don’t think you have to worry,” Claire laughed. “Besides, if he wanted to pull something he’d ask you to go to some place cool. Like Montreal or Cancun. Cheer up, at least he’s not taking you to Buffalo.”

Tina laughed.

*  *  *

Friday she got her direct deposit. And wow, it was exactly as he had promised. Twelve hundred dollars minus EI, taxes and CPP. It was a bit surprising. Usually she’d had to wait a couple weeks to get paid.

“It’s not like I have to run through a middle man,” Devon told her as he filled it out and signed it with a flourish. “And I’m sure you’ll want to celebrate.”

The comment made her blush. Too close to the truth.

Tina got it to the bank just before closing and happily read her balance. Another few weeks of this and she might even be able to start making a dent in her student loans.

The next Thursday morning they met at the office. She’d packed a few extra things in her purse, a couple chocolate bars and a bottle of peach flavored water. Just after 10 AM, where a vintage brown and white 70s looking limousine pulled up to the strip mall’s parking lot, a Lincoln by the hood ornament if her time with ex-ex-ex boyfriend Danny had taught her anything. The driver looked to be from south Asia. He certainly had the accent.

“As I said, Devon noted, “Old school. Plenty of room to stretch out.”

“There is a small bar as well,” the driver replied.

And stretch out she must have. Had Devon spiked her morning coffee with decaf, because somewhere between Walkers line and Burlington proper she nodded off. To be fair, unless she was driving, or in the passenger’s seat, long drives made her sleepy. But the trip had been only 45 minutes.

Suddenly bumpy travel brought her back to consciousness. She’d must have just nodded off for a few moments, Tina decided. It wasn’t like she’d been tired.

“Have a nice rest there?” Devon asked.

She shook her head, rose to sit in her seat, suddenly aware the car was moving slowly on a bumpy road and that she was wearing different clothing. Something robelike. What the-?